I've got a new favorite shop called Likritsroten and it's located far down Sveavägen number 107 and they also have a webshop. The young man who took me there was my son and it cost me half a fortune. Afterwards the son gave me a condescending opinion that I had been like a child in the shop. My son is quite good at licorice and is probably the one who has come the furthest in his empirical research on licorice in the microwave. He knows EVERYTHING about which licorice varieties work for microwaving and which ones don't. Personally, I think that micro licorice looks a bit crazy, but I think that micro licorice is something that many people could tinker with in their spare time.
Different licorice varieties
The girl in the shop gave us a lecture about the different types of licorice from the pure raw licorice and licorice root, which is the raw material itself that you recognize from the pharmacy when you were a child, to the more modern licorice varieties. I myself bought a small piece of raw licorice for SEK 15 but found it extremely hard to chew and had a slight coffee taste. Licorice in foam and chocolate has never been my taste, however, I am a sucker for salmiak varieties and nasty powder versions. The clerk told me about a variety that gave a lot of LPM ie licorice per minute and a variety that was said to corrode the entire mouth with its saltiness. So I bought that variety - but I was a little disappointed because I didn't think it had any further aftertaste. The clerk advocated the Icelandic licorice but I thought it looked a bit conservative.
New licorice fudge favorite
A new fudge favorite that I had never tried before where Kuhbonbon Licorice which I think comes from Germany, it is a soft licorice with a nice rounded taste. I also bought some natural licorice powder from Borgeby Kryddgård which I later experimented with coffee and I also tried seasoning the party puffs with this magical powder. On the can it said that the powder could be used as a flavoring for confectionery, desserts and baked goods. Seasoning the coffee with licorice powder which gave a faint licorice flavor was very good - on the other hand, I am hesitant to have licorice powder on party puffs. Another new favorite was a licorice bar with a well balanced dose of salmiac powder which was wonderful and melted in the mouth.
Does genetics affect our taste buds?
What I think is a little strange about licorice is that it is mostly us northerners who enjoy licorice, while other cultures seem to live in a licorice vacuum and do not understand the allure of salted licorice at all. Holland is the country with the most licorice varieties, if we in Sweden have 4 different varieties, the Dutch have 8. Icelanders also have quality licorice. Maybe we have slightly different taste buds when it comes to salty tastes? Could there be some connection to the ammonium chloride or that our ancestors ate salt herring?
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